Snow Business, June 2016

www sima org snowbusiness JUNE 2016 SNOW BUSINESS 41 Once you have your worksheet created you can switch gears from what you are doing to eliminate the risk on the client side and protect your own risk Before speaking with your driver or crew chief take time to do claims analysis on your end Take a look at the claims that occurred within your organization to start to build a risk profile of your company A good place to start is to take a look at your OSHA 300 log I would suggest looking back five to 10 years to see if you can pick up on some trends such as Weather patterns Did all incidents occur in snow sleet ice rain etc Did the incident occur when clearing for the first time after initial cleanup Experience and time on the job How experienced was the person who damaged equipment or property or got hurt Was it their first season Did they just receive a promotion Were they a seasoned veteran who may be complacent Did they just get assigned to a new property or route Timing of the incident Do the majority of incidents fall within the same time frame after the initial snow fall storm For instance after X hours or X days we see that we have one major incident and two minor incidents Equipment Is the incident directly related to the equipment you are using Do the employees understand how the equipment works and the best way to utilize it for the job Job or task Not every employee is capable of every task given to them As a result some employees need to be limited to what they are able to do as well as the equipment that they are allowed to operate Property Does one particular property always cause incidents Does a property have too much exposure for us to continue working with them Are there outside influences like potential crime or violence issues that present a specific hazard Now that you have a profile of the facility from your perspective the perspective of the client with expectations and a risk prospective you can begin the process of reducing risk utilizing the hierarchy of control OSHA defines the hierarchy of control as elimination substitution engineering administrative controls and personal protective equipment The list shows the following in the preferred order of risk reduction Think through each of the aspects that were identified and see if you can devise solutions that apply the hierarchy of control to your risk Facility specific considerations Location Determine the location of the incident Is there anything unique to this location Condition What was the condition at the time of the incident Why was the condition that way Could clearing frequency improve the condition Could a material be used to improve this condition Could a process be used to improve this condition Could a device or coating be utilized to improve this condition Could drainage be improved to change this condition Could the traffic be rerouted to avoid this issue Managing your own risk Now that you have discussed how this impacts your clients it is time to look at your company and operations to analyze how an injury would impact you during the plow season Policies Do you have policies and procedures for the way you expect your employees to operate Is this just for show Do you operate within the parameters of your policies or do you break the rules as well Are there escalating disciplinary actions for behavior that goes against policy SOPs Have you drafted standard operating procedures for the jobs and tasks Do you check on employees to make sure that they are following what you have outlined in your SOPs If you found an employee going against your defined SOP how would you discipline this individual What actions steps would be necessary to ensure that the employee knows the correct behavior for the task and has been sufficiently retrained to ensure that the incident does not occur again Retraining when a deficiency is identified What are you doing to ensure that the same behavior that led to or caused the incident is not being repeated Have you tracked this and do you see how the potential for this may be accounting for the majority of incidents We like to explore the 80 20 rule or Pareto principle to see if in fact 20 of your workforce is accounting for 80 of your losses Again it may not be the worker but the outside forces impacting the worker and creating the 80 20 effect Observation This is key in gaining perspective into what the behavior in the field looks like You may recognize new techniques that your employees have adapted and perfected that can be integrated into your SOPs and rolled out to your other crews Getting back into the field In addition to observation getting back into the field regularly is essential to ensuring that you have a full picture of the constraints that your employees face Cost The audit exercises procedures training and mitigation discussed all require time and money Devoting resources to this during the off season could pay dividends during the plow season Increased focus on safety has also shown to increase morale and productivity as fear regarding the workers safety is reduced and all the worker has to focus on is the task at hand Solution By working with your client you can gain perspective into their concerns while putting them at ease By having a worksheet you have compiled if an issue arises you can then document the aspect on the worksheet so that you have a record and reference Utilizing the data that you have collected will allow you to be more effective create a contact with your client protect your clients workforce and recognize the hazards that impact your employees Michael Lorms is a senior account manager for RiskControl360 RiskControl360 provides occupational safety and health consulting services to help employers prevent workplace injuries remain compliant with OSHA regulations and reduce workers compensation expenses Contact him at mlorms@ riskcontrol360 com

View the Covers and the Table of Contents pages from every issue of this publication, all gathered together for easy browsing. Just flip pages and zoom as you normally do to see each issue's Cover and Table of Contents, then follow links directly to interesting content.